Absence Makes the Heart Grow

For four days, Exedra lived in hell.

His body was repeatedly pierced by his own boiling blood, and his skill, pain resistance had already evolved to level three.

Whenever he felt like he was about to die or pass out, his blood would calm and allow his body to heal and regenerate damaged tissue before it went on a rampage again.

Despite dragons having a strong healing factor, it's nothing compared to vampires or slimes so he'd need an hour to regenerate each time.

Currently, Exedra was sitting cross legged in the blood dome with his eyes closed.

He could feel it.

Slowly but surely, every time his insides were torn to shreds, they grew back stronger and more durable than before.

< Endurance + 150

…

< Endurance + 100

…

< Endurance + 80

However, despite living in what felt like endless agony, he did not forget what Seras had told him before she sealed him inside of this bloody dome. 

He continuously replayed the moments up until his forced meditation, and it became easy for him to understand the gist of what the loli dragon girl was getting at. 

Exedra's assumption had been that he had to always keep a cool head under all circumstances. 

If he simply flew into a blind rage at the drop of a hat, he could only imagine the amount of ways that such a thing could be used against him. 

However, he'd had a realization when Seras tried to stop him from having children earlier. 

A dragon was not meant to live it's life afraid of its own emotions.

When he'd mindlessly indulged in his wrath earlier, he felt as if the shackles he'd placed on himself had finally been undone. 

He was faster, stronger, more powerful and his mind had cut out all unnecessary thoughts in an effort to bring down his foe. 

Even though all of his efforts were moot against Seras, that did not undermine the fact that he had suddenly become much more formidable. 

'No... I was always that way, but I've been holding myself back unconsciously.'

He needed to figure out how to find the perfect balance in his combat. 

The key to his power was indulging in his wrath freely, letting it strengthen him, while also making sure that he was unsusceptible to manipulation or incitement. 

It would be a difficult balance to find, but he now had faith in Seras to guide him onto the correct path. 

Crack!

Suddenly a crack appeared in the blood dome before it crumbled to pieces and revealed a sleepy looking Seras.

*Yawn* "Morning, little Prince." Seras rubbed her eyes sleepily as she glanced over Exedra's body to check his progress.

"Oh, your body's improved a little bit huh?"

She walked forward and bent down so that they were eye level and took his hand. "I'm just gonna borrow this for a sec."

Crack!

With a swift motion, Seras snapped his wrist and a sickening crack could be heard.

Exedra did not flinch, he didn't blink, and he surely didn't cry out from this unprovoked attack.

'I was only trying to strengthen his body a bit, but he's already used to pain? Quite intriguing.'

Before she could start training Exedra properly, she had to make his body durable enough to withstand the insane amount of training she was going to put him through. 

'You're seeming more and more like my ideal man! I should horde him away before any more big boobed beasts crowd him...'

It didnt take her long to notice the intense but simmering hatred within his eyes, and she knew he had understood her lecture from earlier as well. 

'Such a hateful look~ Don't stare at me too long or I'll get excited!'

Exedra wasn't sure what delusions were running through the mind of the woman in front of him, but judging by her aura that was rapidly changing colors, he figured that it was no doubt something that'd give him a headache.

His hand healed quickly, and when it did he immediately yanked himself free from Seras so that she couldn't touch him any longer than needed.

Taking no offense to this, Seras rose to her feet and picked up her spear that she had placed aside. "Alright, next comes the fun part!" 

Pointing it at him, she gave Exedra the rules for what was about to happen next. "I'm going to try to put this through that nice little body of yours. All you have to do is dodge the right way, okay?"

Exedra raised an eyebrow when he heard the details of the training he was about to undergo.

"What about-"

"Are you questioning your teacher?!"

"You haven't earned a title like that yet, jailbait."

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?"

It wasn't her fault that her body didn't grow!

Her father was the one to blame, he was the one that wanted to go and fuck a vampire!

Seras unconsciously began to release an unholy pressure that would make even the most famed warrior piss his pants. 

"I was going to take it easy on you since this was your first lesson, but I think I've changed my mind."

Sensing danger, Exedra moved to his feet and immediately felt the difference in his new body that had been repeatedly rebuilt and destroyed. 

Taking a simple stance, Exedra waited for the enraged mini dragon to make the first move.

"And remember, little prince. You'll get a nasty punishment if you don't dodge properly!"

"What punis-"

"Here I come!"

Kicking off against the ground, Seras shot forward towards him like a bullet thrusting her spear at his midsection.

'!' Even though Seras had slowed her speed to one that Exedra could follow, it was still unbelievably fast. 

Exedra used the lightning element in his body to leap a clear distance away and avoid it.

"Wrong!"

Slap!

At a speed that was impossible for him to react to, Seras moved in front of him and gave Exedra a hard slap across the face.

As Exedra's mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood, he realized this must've been the punishment she was talking about.

'Even with pain resistance leveling up so much, this still hurts.'

Putting some distance between them, Seras once again prepared to attack. "Remember you have to dodge properly!"

Before he could ask what was wrong with his previous dodge, she once again leaped forward, this time aiming for his leg.

Exedra made sure to execute a controlled and graceful dodge that didn't look as scrambled as before.

Seras took one look at the distance between them and smiled. "Ooh nice!"

She once again blurred out of his vision before she reappeared in front of him giving him a nice hard smack.

Slap!

"But still wrong!" It was evident by the manic smile displayed across her face that she was enjoying this entirely too much for his liking. 

Exedra spit blood on the ground as he tried to think of what he could be doing wrong.

The second time was better than the first so…

'Wait… she's fucking crazy!' His eyes widened as he thought of a possible answer to this current situation.

Exedra took a deep breathe to relax his mind and his body. Luckily the meditation he'd done prior to this was coming in handy right about now.

'Did he figure it out already? I wanted to touch him a few more times.' Seras thought with a disappointed tone. 'Well, let's be certain.'

Bang!

The ancient dragon once again shot forward this time aiming to pierce his head.

She smiled when Exedra tilted his head to the side, dodging her blade by only a hair's length.

"Great! You got it!"

"Wanna explain to me why that was the answer?" He was slightly annoyed by the two slaps he'd received and wanted to know what the reason for that insanity was.

"You think because dragons have tons of energy, we can be wasteful with it?" She frowned.

"Dodging with as little movement as possible not only conserves your stamina, but it tricks the opponent into using theirs up faster."

"How so?" Exedra frowned.

He thought she was just having him do this because it looked cool.

"It makes your opponent think 'if I just go a little faster, I can cut him down' and subconsciously, they start using more of their energy to close the gap. For enemies that you are forced to trade blows with, something of this nature is vital. "

Exedra nodded as he finally understood the value of what Seras was teaching him.

But there was still a burning question lingering in his mind.

"What if I'm not fast enough?"

A sadistic grin spread across Seras' childlike face.

She took her stance again and prepared to pierce him with her weapon.

"I'll make you fast enough."

-

For eight entire hours, Seras assaulted Exedra with countless attacks of varying speeds an intensity.

He could not dodge perfectly every time, and ended up getting parts of his body sliced into by her spear's razor sharp blade.

Only when she felt satisfied with his progress did she tell him he was free to go home for the night but that would be the last time he'd be home for a while.

Seras had things to prepare if she was going to make him the third most feared warrior in the kingdom after all.

Teleporting into his room at the castle, Exedra sighed when he felt the comfort of familiar surroundings embrace him.

He looked down at his current outfit and realized his outfit not only had holes in it, it was also smelly and dirty as well.

"I should take a bath before I go and find everyone." He had to go and inform his family that he'd be away for some time training, and he was really nervous about how they'd take it.

'Whatever. I'll use the time in the bath to think.'

Opening the door to his room, Exedra could only curse his luck when he saw his three beautiful wives in black nightgowns looking like they were getting ready for bed.

"Honey!"

"Husband!"

"We missed you!

One by one, each of the women barreled into Exedra's chest to give him a hug that could crush steel.

They didn't seem to mind the blood or the stench coming from him, as they relished being in the embrace of their husband whom they'd missed so much.

"I missed you girls too." He wrapped his arms around them and gave each of the girls a long kiss.

"Want to join me in the bath?" He suddenly asked.

The three girls' eyes sparkled in unison when they heard their husband's tone, and they knew that he'd make up for the days he'd missed in full.

Though after, he'd deliver some of the worst news they could've heard.